Question: Can anyone study Esoteric Christianity, live the higher life and be a
millionaire? (Vol. I, #183)
Answer: Christ said to the rich young man, "Go get rid of all thou hast," but
the young man, being very much taken up with the good things of this life,
went away sadly, and the Christ remarked concerning the difficulty besetting
the rich man's entrance into heaven. He did not say that it is impossible, but
he knew what a snare and a temptation there is in riches. Nevertheless, a man
may be a millionaire and still striving to live the higher life. Riches are a
clog and a fetter, but it would be absolutely wrong to infer that riches
prevent esoteric development. All depends upon what view a man takes of his
riches. If he uses them for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and to oppress
his fellowmen, of course there can be no spiritual growth, but where a man
regards himself as the steward of his possessions, and where he aims to build
factories having model conditions and model tenement houses, etc., where he
works strenuously himself to see that his philanthropic ideas are being
carried out, and that his fellowmen are receiving good conditions and every
chance for self improvement, wealth is an enormous power for good. When a man
works thus unselfishly for the welfare of others he will not have much chance
to think of self-improvement, and his spiritual growth will be unconscious
rather than otherwise. Nevertheless, he will progress enormously, and his
opportunities to do better and greater work will increase as the years pass by
in this life and also in future lives. That was really the meaning of the
parable of the talents. Those who used their talents were made rulers over a
number of cities in order to give them adequate employment in the evolutionary
scheme. On the other hand, if a man owns a factory and becomes so imbued with
a desire for esoteric development that he selfishly sells out his factory and
throws his workmen out of employment in order that he may develop his own
powers and live the higher life, such a man is shirking his duty and will
undoubtedly receive a rebuke at the hands of the Master, for he has buried his
talent and in a new life he will find himself deprived of the opportunity
which he has neglected.
Reuniting With Loved
Ones After Death
Question: Does the purgatorial experience of the Ego continue from death until
the panorama reaches the birth of the life just ended, or are there periods of
respite between the end of suffering for this, that, or the other deed and the
beginning of suffering for the next? (Vol. II, #1)
Answer: Nature, which is God in Manifestation, always aims at the conservation
of energy, attaining the greatest results with the least expenditure of force
and the least waste of energy. The Law of Analogy applies to this case. If we
study the effect of change in the physical world, we shall learn something of
its consequence in the realm above us. A person who is here suffering acutely
for a short time usually feels pain very intensely; whereas those who suffer
for years in succession, though the pain which is inflicted upon them may be
as severe, do not seem to feel the suffering in the same measure. They have,
as it were, grown used thereto, and their frame has in a certain sense become
emaciated and adjusted to pain; hence suffering is not felt as keenly by these
as by the person in the first case.
It is similar in the purgatorial experience. When a person (man or woman)
has been very hard and harsh in life, when he has thought nothing of the
feelings of others, when he has inflicted severe pain here, there, and
everywhere on whatever occasion offered, we shall find that his suffering in
Purgatory will be severe, intensified of course by the fact that the
purgatorial experience is shorter than the life lived upon Earth; but the pain
is intensified in proportion. Now, therefore, it is evident that if his
experience were continuous, if the pain engendered by one act were followed
immediately by the next, much of the effect of the suffering would be lost
upon the soul because it would not feel its full intensity. Therefore the
experiences, as it were, come to them in waves so that there is a period of
respite after each period of suffering in order that the full intensity of the
next may be felt.
Some may think, of course, that this is cruel, and that it is inflicting
pain needlessly, taking advantage of every finesse to make the suffering as
acute as possible. This is not so, however. While the effect is there, the
motive is a greater good, for nature, or God, never seeks to revenge or avenge
any wrong, but only to teach those who permit themselves to do wrong not to
repeat the act, by giving the wrongdoer exactly pain for pain. The tendency in
a future life is to cause him to respect the feelings of others and so be
merciful to all the world. Thus the very highest intensity in pain is
necessary for the conservation of energy, and to make him good and pure sooner
than would be the case if the pain were continuous and the suffering
correspondingly lessened.
Reuniting With Loved
Ones After Death
Question: If there is a strong attraction between two people which cannot
reach a legitimate consummation in marriage because of previous ties and one
of them passes out of this life with that longing in mind, will they be
reunited in Heaven, and will they meet and mate in a future Earth life? (Vol.
II, #5)
Answer: Yes, in all probability the attraction they feel for each other and
which cannot find expression now will in many such cases bring them together
even before the next life; for though there is no marriage in Heaven, those
who love each other and are therefore in a sense necessary to each other's
happiness, are united in a bond of closest friendship during the stay in the
First Heaven if they pass out at or near the same time. But if one remains in
the body for a number of years after the other has passed over, the one who is
in the Heaven World will with his or her loving thought create an image of the
other and endow it with life; for we must remember that the Desire World is so
constituted that we are able to give bodily shape to whatever we think of.
Thus, although this image will only be ensouled by his thought and the
thoughts of the other person still living in the physical region, it embodies
all the conditions that are necessary to fill the cup of happiness of this
inhabitant of the Heaven World.
Similarly, when the second person passes on, if the first person has
progressed into the Second Heaven, his or her shell, so-called (the
disintegrating desire body in which he or she lived), will answer the purpose
and seem perfectly real to the second lover until his or her life in this
realm is ended. Then when they both pass into the Second and Third Heavens,
forgetfulness of the past comes over them, and they may part for one or more
lives without loss. But sometime, somewhere, they will meet again, and the
dynamic force which they have generated in the past by their yearnings for
each other will unvaryingly draw them together so that their love may reach
its legitimate consummation.
This applies not only to lovers in the generally accepted sense of the word,
but the love existing between brothers and sisters, parents and children, or
friends who are not related by blood will also work itself out in a similar
manner. Our life in the First Heaven is always blessed and filled by the
presence of those we love. If they are not in the spirit world and thus
actually present, their images will be; and it must not be thought that these
are pure illusion, for they are ensouled by the love and the friendship sent
out by the absent ones toward the person of whose heaven life they are a part.
The Effects of Embalming
Question: In embalming the blood is drawn from the body while it is still warm
and a fluid forced into the arteries. What is the effect of this operation?
(Vol. II, #8)
Answer: The Spirit feels pain from embalming and consequently is disturbed in
that most important of all things, the meditation over the panorama of life.
We should realize that at the time of death the harvest is beginning; we have
been sowing all through life, and when death comes the reaping begins. The
first and most important fruitage comes from the study of the panorama of life
as it unrolls in reverse order, showing first the events of the past life and
then the causes that produced them. If the body is disturbed at that time by
the lamentations of relatives or by moving it out to be buried, then the
Spirit is disturbed in the same degree. And naturally a post-mortem
examination or embalming will have far more detrimental effects. Therefore it
is wrong to do either.
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